Rodger Page

Rodger Clarence George Page (17 October 1878 – 2 July 1965) was an Australian missionary and religious leader in Tonga. He was royal chaplain and advisor to Queen Sālote for over 20 years and a long-serving president of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, the de facto state church.

Page was born in Grafton, New South Wales. He trained for the Methodist ministry in Sydney and was posted to Tonga in 1908. He played a key role in the 1924 reunification of the Methodist churches in Tonga and served as president of the Free Wesleyan Church from 1925 to 1946. As royal chaplain to Sālote, Page was an influential advisor on both personal and political matters and was viewed by some as a power behind the throne. He retired to Sydney but continued to visit Tonga regularly, with his ashes being returned to Tonga after his death for interment in a royal burial ground.

Early life Page was born on 17 October 1878 in Grafton, New South Wales, the fourth of eleven children born to Mary (née Cox) and Charles Page. His younger brothers included Australian prime minister Earle Page and New Guinea public servant Harold Page.

Page was raised on his father's property on Chatsworth Island in the Clarence River. His parents were devout Methodists and a number of family members held church offices. Page was educated at Grafton Public School and worked as his father's bookkeeper before moving to Sydney to train for the Methodist ministry at the Wesleyan Theological Institution. He was posted to Murrurundi and Quirindi before volunteering for overseas service as a missionary in 1908.

Tonga Early years In 1908, Page was appointed chairman of the Wesleyan Mission in Tonga, a district of the Methodist Church of Australasia.

In 1912 Page married Hannah Morrison, with whom he had one son. He gained respect among the local population by lobbying on their behalf to William Telfer Campbell, the British consul, and assisting with relief efforts after hurricanes and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. According to Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, a biographer of Sālote, Page was "not only her counsellor in her grief, her chaplain, a censor, and a member of the Home Guard, but also her unofficial adviser on almost everything". He was one of the only papālangi with easy access to the Royal Palace. In 1935, in Tungī's absence, he accompanied Sālote on a visit to Sydney where she was diagnosed with cancer and received a hysterectomy.

In 1939, Page's wife Hannah died after a brief illness. Sālote and Tungī arranged for Hannah to be given a chiefly funeral, providing taʻovala mats and tapa cloth, and allowing her to be interred at the royal burial ground. Tungī died two years later in 1941, with Page supporting Sālote through her own grieving process. As a papālangi, the tapu that prevented Tongans from approaching Sālote during mourning did not apply to him. Each day he would bring "a basket of food to the Palace [...] and persuade the Queen to eat a little of the food he had brought". Page also convinced Sālote that Tungī's former residence – which would ordinarily be considered tapu and burned to the ground – should instead be relocated to Tupou College where it became the residence of the college principal.

Later life

Page retired to Sydney in 1946. His last major public appearance as church president had been to officiate at the 1945 celebrations to mark the centenary of King George Tupou I, a major event attended by Fijian and Samoan chiefs as well as British representatives. During World War II his brother Harold and nephew Robert had been killed by the Japanese.

In retirement, Page regularly met with Sālote on her visits to Australia. In June 1947, he was called out of retirement to officiate at the joint wedding of Crown Prince Tāufaʻāhau Tungi and Prince Fatafehi Tuʻipelehake to their respective brides Halaevalu Mataʻaho and Melenaite Tupou Moheofo. The wedding was a major event, with celebrations lasting several days and a significant portion of Tonga's population visiting the capital, Nukuʻalofa. Page also returned to Tonga in 1950 for the inauguration of work on the new Centenary Church in Nukuʻalofa, a pet project of Sālote. She continued to call on him for advice, including on the prospect of abdication which he counselled against.

Page died in Sydney on 2 July 1965, aged 86. His ashes were returned to Tonga to be interred alongside those of his wife in the Malaʻe ʻAloa royal burial ground in Nukuʻalofa.